


an outlaw, a quick draw

by charleybradburies



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Broken Engagement, Catelyn Lives, Don't Examine This Too Closely, Engagement, Escape, F/M, Forbidden Love, I Don't Even Know, I Was Drunk When I Wrote This, King Robb, On the Run, Robb Lives, Running Away, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 02:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20036266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charleybradburies/pseuds/charleybradburies
Summary: Arya, not wanting to marry her betrothed, convinced Catelyn that she's not a maiden. Of course, it didn't go as hoped, because Catelyn knew just who she wants to be with. The princess, however, saves her blacksmith.(AKA drunk me finally got the motivation to write again, so have a short thing based on an AU I came up with.)[Title from Renegade Runaway by Carrie Underwood.]





	an outlaw, a quick draw

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment and kudos if you enjoy! 
> 
> FYI, I do hope to push back into writing my longer stories soon. Don't mean to keep y'all waiting, but life is hard and so is creativity sometimes. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

All in all, when it comes to leaving, both the choice and Arya's action upon it are easier than she could have anticipated.

Winterfell was her home, and her brothers and their mother her family - and Robb, even her king - but she could not let herself be Gendry's downfall, and if he was out there, somewhere, alive (or perhaps, even if he was not) she could not bear to see through the rest of the Frey alliance. She could not sully her mother's sept with a marriage of lies no more than she could stand back as Catelyn goaded Robb into taking Gendry's hand or head for misdeeds he'd not actually gotten the chance to commit, thinking that the chance to befriend Jon at the Wall would be something of a reward for the man who had "ruined" her wild daughter. He, ironically, for as stupid as Arya has at times accused him of being, even while he was now practically clueless, had better a head on his shoulders with it resting against the stone walls of Winterfell's cells than Arya felt she did, though she remained outside their bars. 

Better a head than the single guard, surely, who took Arya's bribe of food and drink with little more than a suspicious glance. Perhaps, like her family, the man was convinced she knew better than to try something risky with mere days left before the arrival of her betrothed. Fairly, she did not nick the key from him until he'd passed out from the dreamwine, and he was sleeping quite soundly when she grasped Gendry's hand and quietly led him away, away down the path she'd memorized, winding around the edges of the castle in the dark until they leave the vicinity near the Hunter's Gate. He'd face the wrath of Robb and Catelyn come morning, but Arya was content to relieve Gendry of it. 

"Trust me," she'd ordered softly, when she'd walked over to his cell and sat herself right outside, and he'd obliged from that very first moment, though he didn't entirely conceal his confusion. She'd eyed him through the bars, and asked after his treatment, in an attempt not to think of how long it had been since she'd gotten to kiss him, let alone touch or be touched by him - musings they didn't have time for - and he'd simply answered. 

He'd only been taken to the cells because she'd weakly allowed her mother to assume they'd gone further than their touching, not having any recourse against the assumption after her statement that she'd not kept her maidenhood intact for her intended lord husband. She'd been so offended at the possibility that Lord Walder, the one to demand a man of his blood marry a Northern princess, would think her unsuitable solely on the basis of her maidenhood or lack thereof - and not even the dozen other things that might have made her an undesirable bride - that she'd not taken the moment to recall that Catelyn had already raised suspicions about the nature of her relationship with Gendry. 

Arya hadn't intended to admit some portion of the truth so openly, but even if Catelyn's current belief that Gendry had deflowered Arya was inaccurate for the time being, it wasn't that the suspicions were baseless. Gendry, for his part, had known that if they were caught, even if only pleasing each other as they'd learned to do whilst still with the Brotherhood, he'd lose at least body parts and his place at Winterfell for it. Arya had known he was right, and settled primarily for sneaking private kisses - and, occasionally, flashes of her body from underneath her dresses or tunics. As rarely as she got to touch him at Winterfell, she enjoyed knowing he'd picture her when he touched himself, just as she pictured him in turn. After their arrival, she'd stopped expecting they might go further, but she'd never stopped wanting. 

She knows it's a potentially terrible thing for the Frey alliance, for her to abscond with the man she actually desires, but not even the deception of the escape feels the least bit terrible at all.


End file.
